49ers film room: Takeaways from the 49ers defensive performance versus Green Bay - run defense
Dissecting the 49ers defense in the divisional round versus Green Bay.
Ultimately, the defense was good overall in the divisional round versus the Packers. In a 24-21 win, the 49ers battled the elements and overcame some mental errors on both sides of the ball that I don’t believe spell trouble for any future games they play. All things considered, giving up 21 points to an explosive offense like the Packers after what the Packers did on the road to Dallas isn’t cause for concern.
Most everyone will only remember the bad or unlucky plays but there truly were not that many of them and that kind of bad luck doesn’t tell us much as they head into the NFC Championship game for a third year in a row, this time to face the Detroit Lions.
For one thing, the bulk of the Packers explosive plays came on busted coverages or where defenders fell down. There were really only three or four plays outside of that where mistakes were self-induced. The 53-yard Aaron Jones run. The 41 yard defensive pass interference on Ambry Thomas. The long kickoff return and inability to recover a loose ball that set up the Packers for a touchdown drive inside the 49ers 20 yard line. A handful of plays on the Packers opening drive.
On two big pass plays alone, the Packers capitalized due to 49ers coverage defenders slipping on wet grass due to an off and on rain for much of the night. The Packers on several plays also had players struggle to find footing. It was an issue all night for both teams. In a game where there are so few opportunities already, those hiccups just happened to hurt the 49ers at inopportune times.
The one area the 49ers did struggle to defend was the Packers pin and pull sweep in the running game. Aaron Jones ran for 108 yards, 53 of which came on a pin and pull sweep.
The Packers ran this play a variety of ways from under center and shotgun. Here, the Packers are under center “pinning” the edge to the 49ers defense’s right side. The Packers used a receiver to crack block the defensive end every time they ran it but this time Chase Young doesn’t let the receiver pin him side and fights through it.
Deommodore Lenoir, the force corner to the play side, forces Jones back inside, but safety Logan Ryan, running the alley, misses the tackle and ends up taking out his own guy in the process.
The 49ers were letting the Packers win on this play for much of the night when Green Bay ran it. It’s a mystery why the Packers went away from it after the first half and didn’t come back to it until late in the game. They were able to effectively pick off the defensive ends and out-gap the run defense to the play side in the process, using the 49ers aggressive up-field rush mentality against them.
Outside of that, the 49ers defense actually contained Jones fairly well, holding him to just 3.2 yards per carry on his 17 other carries. The 49ers got Arik Armstead back but they got production from several players on the defensive front in this game. Here, Bosa crossed the face of the tight end into the C-gap and stopped Jones for no gain.
Two plays later, Javon Kinlaw reset the line of scrimmage by pushing Packers left guard Elgton Jenkins into the backfield into Jones’s path. Kinlaw’s effort to push the guard kept him free and clean of a double team block by the center. Also, Deommodore Lenoir fearlessly plugged the C-gap as the nickel defender.
Speaking of Lenoir, the 49ers had pretty good success defending the run out of nickel. Usually a defense would prefer to stay out of nickel on running downs because they’re lighter in the front seven due to the nickel defender. But Lenoir is a plus defender versus the run, often fitting the C-gap inside while Young or Bosa have the outside edge.
In quarters coverage, or red zone quarters here, the nickel defender is usually the C-gap defender inside. In the 49ers 1-gap defensive front, if Bosa is the edge player as the 9-tech, that puts the nickel, Lenoir in the run fit in the C-gap. Here he stops Jones for no gain.
In part two, we’ll look at the pass rush and pass coverage in the divisional game versus Green Bay.